Cross-Currents of Jungian Thought: An Annotated Bibliography

by Donald R. Dyer. (Shambhala Publications, 1991)

PART ONE : Chapter Five : Psychological Types

Jung is well known for his early development of a theory of psychological types, which was stimulated by his contact and final confrontation with Freud. His terminology is widely accepted, and his system of classification of psychological and personality types has been adopted, modified, and used extensively, especially in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

This chapter consists of comprehensive and detailed work by Jung on psychological types and the dictionary of analytical psychology (which is extracted from Psychological Types), followed by nineteen books by other authors (including three cross-referenced works), arranged chronologically.

Based upon his many years of practical experience as a doctor and practicing psychotherapist, Jung's psychological typology is a "critical psychology dealing with the organization and delimitation of psychic processes that can be shown to be typical." Before arriving at the general description of the types (chapter 10), he devotes 323 pages to the problem of types in the history of classical and medieval thought, Schiller's ideas on the type problem, Apollonian and Dionysian opposites, and the type problem in human character, poetry (107 pp.) psychopathology, aesthetics, modern philosophy, and biography. The description of types and definitions of terms occupy 147 pages. He distinguishes eight basic types: extraverted thinking, extraverted feeling, extraverted sensation, extraverted intuitive, introverted thinking, introverted feeling, introverted sensation, and introverted intuitive. Appended are four short papers on psychological typology (published 1913-36).

Extracted from volume 6 (Psychological Types), annotated immediately above, this paperback consists of chapters 10 ("Psychological Types") and 11 ("Definitions") and the epilogue. Consequently, it is not a dictionary in the ordinary sense of the word because the first seventy-eight pages consist of descriptions of the eight psychological types. This "dictionary" contains definitions of fifty-seven Jungian concepts, arranged alphabetically, from abstraction to will, the longest being symbol (7 pp.) and soul/psyche.

Implementing Jung's theory of psychological types by ascertaining certain basic differences in the way individuals prefer to use perception and judgment, Myers and McCaulley provide in this extensive manual information on Jung's theory that is essential for understanding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Following an introductory overview of Jung's theory and a discussion of the nature and uses of the indicator, they offer a guide for administering and scoring the MBTI, understanding the theory behind it and the sixteen types, and initial interpretation and verification of the results. They discuss practical applications for the use of type in counseling, career development, and education. Reliability and validity of the indicator are examined, and a data-filled appendix provides scores from widespread sources.

The first half of the book contains von Franz's analysis of the inferior function; the second half consists of Hillman's analysis of the feeling function. Following a general characterization of the inferior function of the personality, von Franz deals with the four irrational psychological types identified by Jung (extraverted sensation, extraverted intuitive, introverted sensation, introverted intuitive) and with the four rational types (extraverted thinking, extraverted feeling, introverted thinking, introverted feeling) in terms of each one's inferior counterpart, thereby revealing the role of the inferior function in psychic development. Hillman deals with one of the four functions, namely, feeling, defining it primarily as involving the use of evaluation rather than emotion. He discusses inferior feeling and negative feelings, feeling and the mother-complex, feeling and the anima, and education of the feeling function.

Studying three recent theories of personality types (of Jung, William Sheldon, and Erich Fromm), Havice weighs their usefulness for moral philosophy. She shows in each of the three cases "how the type concept was elaborated, what problems this elaboration involves, and what further conclusions it leads to, especially for practical or moral philosophy." She concludes that no thoroughly satisfactory formulation of personality types is yet available, but is impressed most by Fromm's typology. She feels that Jung's typology "can be understood only in relation to various metaphysical and epistemological premises which have not been made sufficiently clear," and she doubts the applicability of the types to the classification of normal people.

Malone explains that his study of personality types is based on a theory of experiential typology developed by Harriet Mann and others at Princeton, which in turn had as its immediate source Jung's classification of psychological types. He recognizes eight basic psychetypes, namely, four "continuous" (thinking territorial, thinking aethereal, feeling volcanic, feeling oceanic) and four "discontinuous" (sensation volcanic, sensation territorial, intuitive oceanic, intuitive aethereal). He describes the book as a "how-are" rather than a "how-to" book, aimed at understanding "how we are alike, and how we are different."

Drawing on Jung's "invention of psychological types" and Isabel Myers's modification that pioneered a method of measuring type which is "personally significant" to any individual, Keirsey and Bates group the sixteen Myers-Briggs types into four temperaments. Temperament, in turn, is discussed in relation to mating, children, and leaders (including teachers). As they state it, "the point of this book is that people are different from each other" and there is a profound need to understand different temperaments and to valuethem. Included is a type test that the reader can take. A 41 page appendix consists of "portraits" of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types.

Faces in a Cloud: Subjectivity in Personality Theory, by Robert D. Stolorow and George E.Atwood. New York and London: Jason Aronson, 1979 (217, incl. 9-p. index,5-p. bibl., end-chapter ref. notes).

Examining the personality theories of Freud, Jung, Wilhelm Reich, and Otto Rank, researchers Stolorow and Atwood analyze the topic of subjectivity. The 37 pages (chapter 3) devoted to Jung consist of an analysis of the psychological origin of Jung's personality theory in terms of secret, critical, and formative experiences, which is preceded by an examination of Jung's theory in terms of the collective unconscious and archetypes, self-dissolution, the disunited man, and individuation. They believe that Jung's contributions to understanding human experience are important and best understood when stripped of metaphysical mental constructs.

Following a long search for practical and effective ways of matching instruction to basic psychological differences in students, Lawrence adopts an approach based on Jung's ideas about psychological types with practical modifications by Myers. He considers the patterns of mental habits (patterns of "people types") as fundamentally important in the planning and execution of teaching styles and presents techniques through exercises and case studies that teachers can use to help students learn, as well as a model for introducing type theory into a school system. Included is a 19-p. reprint of Myers's Introduction to Type.

The theme of this book is "the belief that many problems might be dealt with more successfully if approached in the light of C. G. Jung's theory of psychological types." Myers's aim is to devise a system that would reflect not only one's preference for extraversion or introversion but also one's preferred kind of perception and decision making. She extends Jung's theory by adding an auxiliary process to the dominant process, and she examines the effects of preferences on personality, providing detailed descriptions of the sixteen types resulting from various combinations of the preferences. Her practical implications of type include the use of opposites in understanding conflicts and the relation of type to marriage, early learning and learning styles, occupation, and the task of growing.

Lowen's efforts to understand the diversity of personalities led him to a combination of various theories about the mind, Jung's concepts, and the principles of information theory and systems engineering. Written in the language of mathematics, computers, and psychology, he presents static as well as dynamic models to understand the functioning of both the brain (processor of information) and the mind ("programmer"). The overall conceptual model has value for research in artificial intelligence and linguistic simulation, personality development, testing and career counseling, management, and creativity. He says that those interested in the psychology of personalities and the theories of Jung may want to concentrate mainly on the chapters dealing with profile interpretation, interpersonal relations, and creativity.

Drawing from experiences of directing workshops that always "centre around the concepts of personality functioning described by . . . Jung as his theory of psychological types," Mamchur weaves together stories, vignettes, photographs, cartoons, and paintings in order to illustrate the values of typology for individuals. She explores the significance of typology as a guide to personal identity and self-development, communication skills, career choice, and usefulness in business, marriage, and school, using the MyersBriggs Type Indicator to characterize individuals. Chapters dealing with the four functions are entitled "Seeing Is Believing" for sensing, "In Other Words" for intuition, "A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose" for feeling, and "So What?" for thinking.

In their attempt to understand what makes people different and to develop a tool that will identify significant differences, the Arrajes combine the typologies of William Sheldon's body and temperament types with Jung's psychological types, using the familiar Jungian terminology of eight types. In discussing the future of typology, they examine some of the literature on relationships between physical and psychological types, which suggest relations between physical illnesses and body types and between psychological illness and physical types.

Brownsword introduces readers to both Jung's theories of psychological type as interpreted by Briggs Myers and to Keirsey's idea about temperament. Their relationship provides different and useful insight~ into human personality as "the continual ebb and flow of a personality between type and temperament." After outlining the preferences (attitudes of extraversion and introversion and the four functions of perceiving and judging), he provides detailed descriptions of the sixteen MBTI types that are grouped in Keirsey's four temperament types. The combinations are then related to each other and to the world of work as well as to the process of human development.

Intending to illustrate the complexity of the model of psychological types and some of its practical implications, Sharp explains Jung's method ("not a critique nor a defence"). He views Jung's typology as a tool for psychological orientation, a way of understanding oneself as well as problems that arise between individuals. In his "close adherence to Jung's expressed views" he presents the theory and model of functions and attitudes and the role of the unconscious, as well as descriptions of the eight types. He concludes by discussing the reasons for a typology and the topics of type testing and typology and the shadow. Appended are an article on "the clinical significance of extroversion and introversion" by H. K. Fierz and a thoughtful essay on how Jung's model of typology might look in everyday life as "a dinner party with the types."

The background of the book is the work of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers and beyond that, the work of Jung. As principal users and adaptors of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator in consultations with individuals, families, corporations, and governments, Kroeger and Thuesen aim to "help people understand their differences and deal with them in a constructive way." They describe the functional preferences and temperaments and relate their "typewatching" to business, friends and lovers, and parent-child relationships.

This is a complete revision of A Tool for Understanding Human Differences (Arraj and Arraj, 1985), which combined the typologies of Jung and Sheldon. Here the authors cover the basics of recognition and development of Jung's psychological types, following with discussions of types in marriage and of the challenge of the fourth function (inferior, or leastdeveloped). They then present Sheldon's basic components of physique and temperament types, suggesting definite connections between body types and psychological types. Part Two is devoted to answering thirty typical questions about types, and an appendix offers notes on types from the point of view of development, along with hints about situations one might encounter on the journey into the inner psyche.